S'mon said:
Re FMJ rounds - according to some discussions of ballistics & wounds I read (there was a nice one in GDW's Fire Fusion & Steel), all bullets tumble a lot when entering solid matter, so FMJ rifle rounds' wound trail & thus damage is proportional more to the bullet's length x diameter than to its cross-sectional area; this is the main reason (long) rifle bullets are much more damaging than (shorter) pistol rounds of similar mass & velocity.
I wouldn't rely on gaming materiel for firearms information
L/D is a factor in the round's initial yaw on impacting soft tissue, but so is the yaw cycle of the round (which is a function of both projectile configuration and spin rate). The velocity of the round is more significant however -- and that's really why rifle-launched projectiles are so much more damaging than pistol launched ones.
The size of the temporary and permanent wound cavities have a lot to do with three things: how soon the bullet yaws on entering tissue, how much it yaws, and how much it fragments (all bullets fragment to some degree on other depending on how fast they impact, whether designed to or not). All three of those factors are influenced by velocity. What we're finding, particularly with our standard M855 (5.56mm ball) round is that higher velocity means earlier yaw, more yaw, and greater fragmentation => bigger wound cavity => more lethal.
You're right, though, on the hollowpoint. Hollow-point ammunition is designed to rapidly expand (rather than explode, fragment, or yaw) on impact, to rapidly dissipate energy into the target. It works quite well, but like purpose-designed frangible ammo, polymer-tipped ammo, an dthe like, the military is barred from their use by the Geneva convention.
There's other sexy stuff our there -- shaped charges have been mentioned, like 40mm HEDP, and there are advanced things like reactive material (.50 KICM, which reacts -- looks like an explosion, but isn't caused by HE -- after penetrating armor) or the Mk211 .50 armor-piercing incendiary round, but those are primarily designed for anti-materiel rather than anti-personnel use. (Hence the myth: "I was shooting at his equipment, officer, I swear").
Use whatever you like in your gaming, though. Exploding hollowpoints? Sure!
- Olgar (Small Arms Division Chief, US Army Infantry Center)